In the past, audio signal processing has been applied to improve audio recordings, audio compression, audio transmission, and audio delivery systems. Audio signal processing has evolved over the years as electronics have gotten increasingly more powerful. Modern audio signal processing can involve intelligently deriving information from audio streams and processing audio streams interesting ways. For instance, modern audio signal processing has evolved to include specialized fields related to speech processing—the field of deriving speech information from audio streams. Speech processing can have sub-fields as well, related to areas of research such as: language identification, voice command processing, speaker diarization, speech recognition, speech transcription, speaker identification, speaker verification, and source separation.
Besides modern audio signal processing, modern audio systems have also become more complex and ubiquitous as microphones and speakers become cheaper and more pervasive. Audio signal processing enables computerized analysis of voice and video calls, e.g., making it possible for voice commands to be made on the phone without the need for a human call operator. Audio signal processing also enables users to speak directly to their electronic devices seamlessly without the use of haptic user interface. Furthermore, audio signal processing can enable more intelligent conference calls by deriving contextual information and language information from various audio streams.